MINOR COAL MEASURES. 
137 
ill the stone that it struck us, the calico 
printer or paper-stainer might here obtain 
a beautiful and certainly a novel device, for 
the ornament of his manufacture.”"^ 
The uniformity of plan which prevails to 
so great an extent throughout creation, and 
is exhibited in the frequent reproduction on 
a minor scale of phenomena elsewdiere more 
largely developed, is remarkable also in the 
recurrence of small coal fields throughout 
the whole geological series. We notice 
first accumlations of fossil trees in the 
shales of the Lias above the carboniferous 
system; then coal and iron ore in thin beds 
in the low^er Oolite; afterwards lignite in 
the greensand; next coal and ironstone in 
the tertiary deposits at Aix in Provence; 
the brown coal of the Rhine and of Bovey in 
Devonshire; and lastly, the accumulations 
of peat, with thin flakes of bog-iron ore, 
spread like infant coal measures over the 
morasses of the present surface. The plants 
of the Oolite exist in sufficient quantities 
to constitute seams of coal, and supply profit- 
* Fossil Flora, iii. p. 23. 
M 5 
